Series of engravings made by Hans Holbein around 1523 and collected in his famous work "The Dance of Death" where he shows the conquering and equalizing power of death before all human beings.

We all know the Golden legend where Saint George must save a princess who is going to be sacrificed as a tribute so that a Dragon allows the people to drink from the fountain. When Saint George kills him, the citizens decide to leave their paganism to embrace Christianity. It is said that this story is a translation of the Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda, or of Hercules and Hesione, others relate it to the Egyptian god Horus as the horseman who surpassed Evil with his spear. In any case it is clear that early Christianity adapted the new religion to the existing one, to the old beliefs.

In this process of syncretism, Christian mythology presents us with Saint George as the white knight of the Church and the dragon would be the image of Satan, idolatry and paganism. His image was venerated for centuries, in 494 Georgios - that Roman soldier executed in Nicomedia for his faith in the time of Emperor Diocletian - is canonized and venerated ever since. His cult spread, he became patron of knights and soldiers (miles Christi), protector of the crusaders. During the reconquest, Pedro I and later Jaime I of Aragon appeared to him to help in the fight against the Muslims in the battles of Alcoraz and El Puig respectively.

From here we are left with the symbols of the knight of courage and the wisdom of the dragon, discarding that representation as an incarnation of evil, as a relative of the serpent.

We all know the Golden legend where Saint George must save a princess who is going to be sacrificed as a tribute so that a Dragon allows the people to drink from the fountain. When Saint George kills him, the citizens decide to leave their paganism to embrace Christianity. It is said that this story is a translation of the Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda, or of Hercules and Hesione, others relate it to the Egyptian god Horus as the horseman who surpassed Evil with his spear. In any case it is clear that early Christianity adapted the new religion to the existing one, to the old beliefs.

In this process of syncretism, Christian mythology presents us with Saint George as the white knight of the Church and the dragon would be the image of Satan, idolatry and paganism. His image was venerated for centuries, in 494 Georgios - that Roman soldier executed in Nicomedia for his faith in the time of Emperor Diocletian - is canonized and venerated ever since. His cult spread, he became patron of knights and soldiers (miles Christi), protector of the crusaders. During the reconquest, Pedro I and later Jaime I of Aragon appeared to him to help in the fight against the Muslims in the battles of Alcoraz and El Puig respectively.

From here we are left with the symbols of the knight of courage and the wisdom of the dragon, discarding that representation as an incarnation of evil, as a relative of the serpent.

Hyperborea was one of those lost continents like Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu that is believed to be located in the Arctic regions. Along with Tule, it was one of several terrae incognitae of the Greeks and Romans. People were said to live to be a thousand years old and to enjoy lives of complete happiness.

This mythical place full of legends, immortal beings and demigods, has been considered as the polar center of civilization and spirituality of the Golden Age.

Hyperborea has been extensively referenced in literature, from Joyce's Ulysses to the works of the Three Musketeers of the Weird Tale: Clark Ashton Smith in his Hyperborean cycle connects with the literature of HP Lovecraft (with whom he shared a great affinity) and the Cthulhu myths. And good old Robert E. Howard used the name Hyperborea (the first kingdom to form after the destruction of Thuria) as part of the geography of the literary universe of Conan the Barbarian.

If you have seen women running through the streets from one place to another being chased by some half naked guys in wolf skins who whipped and whipped them with bloody strips of ram, do not be alarmed! they are just remembering an old pagan festival, something lewd that yes, but it was a sacred rite of purification and fecundity celebrated in Ancient Rome every February 15 called the lupercales or Lupercalia.

The word comes from lupus, that is, wolf and its Roman god of fertility and male sexuality Fauno Luperco (Greek mythological deity Pan, the one who protected the wolf), a strange, hairy being, with legs and horns of a goat and large, pointed ears with a voracious and infinite sexual appetite.

One of the legends tells that in the ancient city of Alba Longa, the evil Amulio after deposing his brother Numitor from the throne, ordered to kill all his first-born, turning his daughter Rea Silvia into a virgin so that she would not have successors, but The god of war Mars was enraptured by the girl and they procreated the brothers Romulus and Remus, who managed to escape from the clutches of their uncle Amulio, managing to survive in the forests thanks to the woodpecker and the she-wolf Luperca who nursed and raised them. Years later they would return to their homeland to take revenge and kill him.

Due to the shortage of fertility and women in Rome, the oracle of the goddess Juno announced that the mothers of Lazio would be fertilized by a male goat. For this purpose, a ritual was held every February 15 in the Lupercal cave - there where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf - where the most virile young men were selected - those ephebos who, on their initiation path, had lived in the forests as human wolves—, called loberos or luperci (friends of the wolf), and their faces were marked with the blood of a dog and a sacrificed male goat.

To make the rite more fun and interesting, virile members were created in the form of strips with the skin of the goat ... The libido to the surface, the lustful participants launched themselves in the carnal search for women eager to be impregnated, who agreed in a Shameless sexual play, whipping and spanking included, in a depurifying act that increased fertility.

Christianity erased with a stroke of the pen this fun bacchanal, so beneficial to health and to the women of Ancient Rome, moving it to February 14, Valentine's Day.

How to approach witchcraft and not fall into the imaginary that we have about it throughout history since its demonization as an independent woman, enemy of the people through inquisitorial texts such as that written by monks in the Malleus Maleficarum through the persecution of the Church, the witch hunt, the romantic corruption, the self-serving deformation of the Victorian bourgeois society fearful of women's liberation, the morbid, the superstition and the occultism of modernity to pop culture where we find that evil witch of covens with goats eater of children.

An ancestral look returns us to the primordial tradition, esotericism and occult sciences, to the sorceress as a woman of power, free and independent, connoisseur of magical wisdom, botanical and healing knowledge, who approaches the darkness to do the well, transmitted that knowledge from generation to generation as a closed circle through the three ages of women (the young, the mature and the old).

If we have to look for references, there we have the mothers of all the witches of pagan times such as Circe, Medea and Cassandra, those visionaries or women watchmen who accompanied the hero, endowed with magical knowledge, or the mysterious women of the medieval forest as priestesses and epicenter of knowledge, or the witchcraft manifestations of the 19th century (represented in certain pre-Raphaelite paintings) as the last vestiges of a magical and sapiential society.

The history of witchcraft is stained with blood, dark rites and crimes, terrible trials, persecutions, intolerance, scapegoats... Faced with black clichés and legends, let's stay with the true origin of witchcraft, a good time to remember and recover the lessons and virtues of ancient wisdom and magical thinking.

Naked, in front of oneself, next to the oak, the sun awaits us, it plays night vigil.

Let the log burn, let us burn the old,

and with its ashes we purify our soul,

their fertile sowing give us an abundance of heart and wisdom.

May the ancestors join us in the great banquet until dawn.

The life that sleeps under the earth will be reborn after darkness.

Yule.

You can't breathe
You can't run
You can't get away
The bell will not save you... 

A custom-made pine suit
Grand Duke without pulse asleep,
The box and the crypt are closed
You can't escape with your keys
And with fogged glass
Who will see you? 

Gelineau Syndrome
Excess Narcolepsy
In a deep sleep you will fall
Flowers on your grave
No spider nails, you scream and bang
To a coffin they won't listen to

Pests, epidemics and cholera
taphephobia does not help you
Two metres below ground
Tight burial
Sealed stone slab
In a matter of hours your choking

Premature funeral
Fear of the dark
Sepulchral silence...
Buried alive you are

American Indians: Great warriors, farmers and nomads. Sacred tribes with ancestral ties set among themselves throughout Alaska, Hawaii and the rest of EEUU, that formed the millenarian culture of the “red skins”. Native Americans like the Sioux, Arapajoes, Apache, Cheyenne or Cherokee and their famous leaders such as Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull that evoke the epic struggles of the Conquest of the Wild West.

The supreme product of Indian civilization was the warrior. His prototype contains a wealth of virtues that make him an admirable figure. And to be a good warrior as the Indians understood it, it was not enough to have extraordinary courage; He had to be, too, generous, detached, austere, noble: in short, a true gentleman, a true knight: a way of life and a "way of perfection”.

You can't breathe
You can't run
You can't get away
The bell will not save you... 

A custom-made pine suit
Grand Duke without pulse asleep,
The box and the crypt are closed
You can't escape with your keys
And with fogged glass
Who will see you? 

Gelineau Syndrome
Excess Narcolepsy
In a deep sleep you will fall
Flowers on your grave
No spider nails, you scream and bang
To a coffin they won't listen to

Pests, epidemics and cholera
taphephobia does not help you
Two metres below ground
Tight burial
Sealed stone slab
In a matter of hours your choking

Premature funeral
Fear of the dark
Sepulchral silence...
Buried alive you are

The irreverent and revolutionary Old skull, the spirit of fun. Skulls were used in the old traditions of satirical and ridiculous poems making social criticism and protest, dates 500 years ago. Also had been used in different plays like the ”Dance of Death” in the 14th century. People needed satire to help deal with the grim world (plagues and diseases) around them. But the symbol emerged in Mexico as a means of expression especially used with roguish and ironic tones against the nobles and powerful of the viceroy times. It is also used during the celebration of the day of the death.

"Only dead fish follow the stream of the river".

Swimming against the current is an odyssey in an open world where paradoxically there is more access to information but at the same time we are more controlled. Reflections of those dystopian universes — riddled with environmental disasters and cataclysms — from science fiction novels have come true. But there is still hope. There are spaces of freedom to ambush, where dissidents and freethinkers can react and rebel against the flashes of tyranny, censorship and dehumanization present in society. In some remote and lost place the Lineage of the free will always resist.

Breath Souls. Breath of life. Last Breath... The old skulls, bones, stones and the earth whisper to us ancient amazing stories, but also too many forged with iron, blood and death....

American Indians: Great warriors, farmers and nomads. Sacred tribes with ancestral ties set among themselves throughout Alaska, Hawaii and the rest of EEUU, that formed the millenarian culture of the “red skins”. Native Americans like the Sioux, Arapajoes, Apache, Cheyenne or Cherokee and their famous leaders such as Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull that evoke the epic struggles of the Conquest of the Wild West.

The supreme product of Indian civilization was the warrior. His prototype contains a wealth of virtues that make him an admirable figure. And to be a good warrior as the Indians understood it, it was not enough to have extraordinary courage; He had to be, too, generous, detached, austere, noble: in short, a true gentleman, a true knight: a way of life and a "way of perfection”.

There is a legend that says that in a place in the Pacific called Teaoturoa, lived a handsome warrior named Mataora who was captivated by the exotic and irresistible beauty of a woman from the underworld, daughter of Uetonga, descendant of the goddess of the night and the god of earthquakes and named Niwareka. He was so captivated that he asked her to marry him and she agreed to stay in his world. Things worked until one unfortunate day the brave Mataora went into a rage and violently mistreated the princess. Drowning in her sadness, she left her husband, returning to Rarohenga, to her old underground life. The clouds wept, the trees screamed, the rivers bled ... the warrior's supplications echoed in the depths of the earth. Sorry for his actions, he descended in search of his beloved to implore her forgiveness. Uetonga, who recognized him when he arrived, gave a great laugh because the hero's body paint had been erased along the way. Naked with shame, he exposed his pain in tears of regret, to which the merciful King forgave him by permanently tattooing him and showing him the art of Ta Moko. Reconciled, they returned from the afterlife, where they taught generation after generation this traditional Maori tattoo technique from New Zealand.

There is a legend that says that in a place in the Pacific called Teaoturoa, lived a handsome warrior named Mataora who was captivated by the exotic and irresistible beauty of a woman from the underworld, daughter of Uetonga, descendant of the goddess of the night and the god of earthquakes and named Niwareka. He was so captivated that he asked her to marry him and she agreed to stay in his world. Things worked until one unfortunate day the brave Mataora went into a rage and violently mistreated the princess. Drowning in her sadness, she left her husband, returning to Rarohenga, to her old underground life. The clouds wept, the trees screamed, the rivers bled ... the warrior's supplications echoed in the depths of the earth. Sorry for his actions, he descended in search of his beloved to implore her forgiveness. Uetonga, who recognized him when he arrived, gave a great laugh because the hero's body paint had been erased along the way. Naked with shame, he exposed his pain in tears of regret, to which the merciful King forgave him by permanently tattooing him and showing him the art of Ta Moko. Reconciled, they returned from the afterlife, where they taught generation after generation this traditional Maori tattoo technique from New Zealand.

There is a legend that says that in a place in the Pacific called Teaoturoa, lived a handsome warrior named Mataora who was captivated by the exotic and irresistible beauty of a woman from the underworld, daughter of Uetonga, descendant of the goddess of the night and the god of earthquakes and named Niwareka. He was so captivated that he asked her to marry him and she agreed to stay in his world. Things worked until one unfortunate day the brave Mataora went into a rage and violently mistreated the princess. Drowning in her sadness, she left her husband, returning to Rarohenga, to her old underground life. The clouds wept, the trees screamed, the rivers bled ... the warrior's supplications echoed in the depths of the earth. Sorry for his actions, he descended in search of his beloved to implore her forgiveness. Uetonga, who recognized him when he arrived, gave a great laugh because the hero's body paint had been erased along the way. Naked with shame, he exposed his pain in tears of regret, to which the merciful King forgave him by permanently tattooing him and showing him the art of Ta Moko. Reconciled, they returned from the afterlife, where they taught generation after generation this traditional Maori tattoo technique from New Zealand.

You were a humble peasant who barely knew how to read & write. In your native Domremí countryside you heard voices & embarked on an uncertain destiny to liberate France from the English. Together with your faithful soldiers, you raised your banner & launched yourself in suicidal acts until liberating the siege of Orleans & crowning your dolphin. That was your glorious rise that preceded your terrible end. They betrayed you & accused you of heresy. A scorching fire ended your life.

Were you perhaps God's chosen one or a madwoman driven by schizophrenia & hallucinations? Be that as it may, you were the maiden acclaimed by your people, the fervent heroine that you faced against all the powers of the earth until you almost won the Hundred Years War. Today Joan, your name is already a legend.